Disabling ext4 journaling remote

[sirko]

hi,

i want to execute

tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/mmcblk0p2
e4fsck –f /dev/mmcblk0p2

during bootup before sd card is mounted.
pi should continue boot process even if something goes wrong, since i have to pay for remote hands on service.

where would you put these commands in?

[DougieLawson]

You should build a new SDCard (as a clone of the original), get a USB SDCard reader and use your secondary system with the primary mounted in the USB reader to set journalling on your primary system. It's less risky, it's less likely to destroy everything.

Also you really DO NOT want journalling on an SDCard. Consider moving your rootfs to a USB device.

[sirko]

too late.
wrote a systemd unit to do it, forgot to set timeout there.
machine is already down, and now i'm waiting for hands on call...

[DougieLawson]

... now i'm waiting for hands on call...

Eh?

Get a second SDCard and a USB reader. Build a fresh copy of Raspbian on the new card, use that with the USB reader to rescue your original card from the damage you've done to it.

[sirko]

pi is located in a foreign data center. no physical access.

[jojopi]

Also you really DO NOT want journalling on an SDCard.

I know that you probably consider it a virtue, but you have wasted another two posts in this thread. The intent of the commands in the original post was to disable journalling. You are advising the poster to do exactly the thing he wanted to do, but without answering his question of how to achieve it remotely.

Also, if you think that having ext4 journalling on an SD Card is a bad thing, why on earth are you revealing that to a first poster on the forums, and not to ShiftPlusOne or whoever makes the Foundation's images these days?

during bootup before sd card is mounted.

There is no before card is mounted, really. Pi images generally boot without using an initramfs. There may be a time early in the boot sequence when the filesystem is still read-only, but messing with the boot scripts strikes me as far more dangerous than doing the job manually.

Log in using SSH. Stop any databases and other applications that will dislike suddenly losing filesystem access. Then use the kernel's Magic SysRq feature to force the system read-only, make the change, and reboot.

Code: Select all

sudo -i
echo u > /proc/sysrq-trigger 
echo s > /proc/sysrq-trigger 
tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/mmcblk0p2
e2fsck -fy /dev/mmcblk0p2
echo s > /proc/sysrq-trigger 
echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger

I have tested this on one of my Raspbian systems, and it seems to go okay.

[sirko]

Thank you, jojopi.
Exactly what I was looking for.

And now I know, why machine did not reboot. Forgot the y for fsck...

[ubnt]

I tried the command "tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/mmcblk0p" on my Raspberry Pi 3 and got the following error.

Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while
trying to open "location address" Could this be a zero-length partition?

Any ideas on why I got that error message? And any other recommendations for disabling journaling?

[DirkS]

I tried the command "tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/mmcblk0p" on my Raspberry Pi 3 and got the following error.

You're missing the '2'. It's /dev/mmcblk0p2

[ubnt]

I checked my drivers by df command.

/dev/mmcb1k0p6 of /boot
/dev/mmcb1k0p5 of /media/pi/settings

Could you please share which one I should use 5 or 6?

[fruitoftheloom]

I checked my drivers by df command.

/dev/mmcb1k0p6 of /boot
/dev/mmcb1k0p5 of /media/pi/settings

Could you please share which one I should use 5 or 6?

Have you used NoobS to install Raspbian ??

[ubnt]

I reinstalled the OS from Noobs.

Any help? I am running a Ubiquiti Controller on Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and want to increase the life of my SD card.

[bl1rt]

Amazing solution, jojopi! Worked like a charm, when I thought it couldn't be done at all. Mad props and thanks much!